Zhang Yuyang,Chen Hongping,Zhang Yao,Yin Huifang,Zhou Chenyan,Wang Yan
Background Violaceins have attracted much attention as potential targets used in medicines, food additives, insecticides, cosmetics and textiles, but low productivity was the key factor to limit their large-scale applications. This work put forward a direct RBS engineering strategy to engineer the violacein biosynthetic gene cluster cloned from Chromobacterium violaceum ATCC 12,472 to efficiently improve the fermentation titers.Results Through four-rounds of engineering of the native RBSs within the violaceins biosynthetic operon vioABCDE, this work apparently broke through the rate-limiting steps of intermediates conversion, resulting in 2.41-fold improvement of violaceins production compared to the titers of the starting strain Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) (Vio12472). Furthermore, by optimizing the batch-fermentation parameters including temperature, concentration of IPTG inducer and fermentation time, the maximum yield of violaceins from (BCDE)m (tnaA−) reached 3269.7 µM at 2 mM tryptophan in the medium. Interestingly, rather than previous reported low temperature (20 ℃), we for the first time found the RBS engineered Escherichia coli strain (BCDE)m worked better at higher temperature (30 ℃ and 37 ℃), leading to a higher-level production of violaceins.Conclusion sTo our knowledge, this is the first time that a direct RBS engineering strategy is used for the biosynthesis of natural products, having the potential for a greater improvement of the product yields within tryptophan hyperproducers and simultaneously avoiding the costly low temperature cultivation for large-scale industrial production of violaciens. This direct RBS engineering strategy could also be easily and helpfully used in engineering the native RBSs of other larger and value-added natural product biosynthetic gene clusters by widely used site-specific mutagenesis methods represented by inverse PCR or CRISPR-Cas9 techniques to increase their fermentation titers in the future.
Amphotericin, as an important macrolide antibiotic, is synthesized by Streptomyces nodosus . A high-yield S. nodosus ZJB2016050 was obtained by mutagenesis in our lab with the advantages of high yield, short fermentation cycle and few by-products, which was more suitable for industrial production. The fermentation differences in 50-tons bioreactor between S. nodosus ATCC14899 and S. nodosus ZJB2016050 were compared. The amphotericin B (AmB) yield of S. nodosus ZJB2016050 was 9.73 mg/g at 96 h, which was 30% higher than that of S. nodosus ATCC14899. The by-product amphotericin A (AmA) production of S. nodosus ZJB2016050 was 78% lower than that of S. nodosus ATCC14899. By performing whole-genome sequencing of S. nodosus ZJB2016050 and comparative genome analysis with the wild-type S. nodosus ATCC14899, it was found that the two strains have high synteny, but each has a special gene fragment. The genes functions of fragment were identified in the amino acid transport and metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism and lipid transport and metabolism. The gene functions of SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) genes were identified in amino acid transport and metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, coenzyme metabolism and secondary metabolites biosynthesis. The difference in signal-regulation and transcription may be the main reason for the differences between these two strains. Three GntR family egulatory factors of S. nodosus ATCC14899 may reduce the synthesis of amphotericin. Based on the analysis of comparative genomes, the effects of corn oil in S. nodosus ATCC14899 and S. nodosus ZJB2016050 were also compared. The results showed that corn oil can promote the fermentation of S. nodosus ZJB2016050. The S. nodosus ZJB2016050 may degrade fatty acids faster, and the degraded acyl-coenzyme can be used to synthesize amphotericin.